The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Chrysanthemum plant, botanically known as Chrysanthemum×morifolium and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Mefisto Dark Red’.
The new Chrysanthemum plant is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Oostnieuwkerke, Belgium. The objective of the breeding program is to create new uniformly mounding and freely flowering Chrysanthemum plants with unique and attractive ray floret coloration.
The new Chrysanthemum plant is a naturally-occurring whole plant mutation of Chrysanthemum×morifolium ‘Mefisto Red Imp’, not patented. The new Chrysanthemum plant was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant from within a population of plants of ‘Mefisto Red Imp’ in a controlled greenhouse environment in Oostnieuwkerke, Belgium in October, 2012.
Asexual reproduction of the new Chrysanthemum plant by vegetative terminal cuttings was first conducted in a controlled greenhouse environment in Oostnieuwkerke, Belgium in January, 2013. Asexual reproduction by vegetative terminal cuttings has shown that the unique features of this new Chrysanthemum plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.